Vehicles now include one or more active safety systems that warn the driver of danger that may require immediate attention. For example, the active safety systems may include a forward collision warning system that warns a driver of a potential collision with a moving object such as a vehicle or a pedestrian or with a non-moving object such as a building. Other active safety systems include but are not limited to adaptive cruise control, park assist, rear and side object detection, precrash detection, pedestrian detection and/or lane departure warning systems.
Each of these active safety systems typically employs one or more sensors such as radar, acoustic and/or optical sensors. For example, the park assist, collision warning and side object detection systems typically include one or more radar sensors that are pointed in forward, rearward, and/or side directions. The radar sensors generate output signals that are used to measure a distance and velocity between the vehicle and other moving and/or non-moving objects. The active safety systems may also compute the relative speeds of the vehicle and the objects and/or angles between the vehicle and the objects.
The active warning system triggers audio, visual and/or haptic alarms to alert the driver if needed. Haptic alarms provide physical feedback such as seat vibration. Usually, the audio alarm is generated using the speakers that are associated with a radio system in the vehicle to reduce cost, although other audio output devices may be used. Additionally, dedicated visual indicators and/or visual indicators that are associated with an instrument panel (IP) of the vehicle may also be used.
For example, the lane departure warning systems typically include optical sensors that detect left and right lane markers that are associated with a lane. The lane departure warning system monitors vehicle position and direction relative to the lane markers and sounds audio, visual and/or haptic alarms when the driver is too close to and/or crosses the left or right lane marker.
When more than one active safety system is implemented in the same vehicle, it becomes more difficult to notify the driver and to provide the driver with the information that can be quickly acted upon. In other words, the driver of the vehicle needs to know where to direct his or her attention when one of the active safety systems sounds an alarm.